Discussions By Condition: Breast Conditions

Hi AllI came across this forum while looking into my problem. Its a long story. I hope you have the patience for it. You may then realise why i need some help!About 6 months ago i woke up with a hard lump under my left nipple.. it slowly got bigger over a few weeks. I went to my doc who put me on antibiotics. After 10 days it still hadnt improved and became painful. I went to another doc who put me on different antibiotics, saying she wasnt sure why i was prescribed the other sort. After 7 days still no change so they referred me to a breast surgeon (BS). I was given another course of antibiotics in the meantime. A week before i had my appointment with the BS it became very painful and i headed to my after hours doctor who gave me another script of antibiotics and another piggy back type (cant remember the name). I saw the surgeon the next week.. the pain had subsided but the lump hadnt changed. The surgeon did an ultrasound and tried to drain the lump with no success. I was given more antibiotics to see if they would help. They didnt. I went and saw another doctor and she told me there was no lump and the discharge was nothing. Hmmm. The next doctor gave me more antibiotics, I went in for surgery. I had the lump removed and was told in a few days that the lump was benign. Now my problem is that the lump is still there. Im not sure if its still swollen from surgery (which was in early Dec) or if it has come back. Last week I went to my after hours GP as i was getting shooting pains in my nipple and the scar had become inflamed. He cut it open and drained about 1/4 cup of thick pus from it. He put me on more antibiotics. I went back to my doc to tell her about my problem as my nipple is completely inverted and wont come out no matter how much i try to manipulate it. After the pus was drained the lump was still there .. it is a very large lump (maybe 3 cm x 2.5 cm). I am still getting pain and was told to come back in a week to see my doc if its not fixed. My problem is i think im being given the run around. I have been on so many courses of antibiotics and nothing is helping. I cant afford to go back to the breast surgeon as its around $150 a visit and thats without any treatment being done. I know there is something wrong, just not what. My breast isnt normalHas anyone had this problem before? After 6 months of this pain and surgery and being given the run around i need to do something, anything. Im desperate. Its not fair that nothing is being done when surely something has to be done. I cant keep taking this amount of anti-biotics all the time, and I cant live with the pain and the lump! I should add that I have started getting the same pain in my right nipple but no lump as yet in that side. I am not lactating as my youngest child is 6. I have had no fevers or sickness at all.Thanks in advance for any information you can help me with. I hope the above made sense!It makes perfect sense to me, I have been through the same things just no surgery as of yet. It all started with a small lump in my left breat right beside my nipple, it was a lil soar for a few days and then went away, but came back a week or so later, made an appt. with obgyn, who had done a breast exam for a yearly papsmear just 2 weeks prior to finding lump, she did another breast exam, and sent me to a breast cancer center, where they performed an ultra sound, and said it was just a fluid filled cyst that it would go away and may get a lil worse before it does, so to me no big deal glad it wasnt serious, 2 weeks later i couldnt lay on my stomach or hardly wear a bra, it was so sore and you could see it on the side of my breast, eventually it came to a head, kinda like a pimple would and infection came out i cleaned it kept it covered, went to family doc. who sent me to a surgeon, who said he wanted me to see another breast cancer doc, so went there and she said she thought it was Zuskas disease, I had never heard of it before, by this time the lump had gone down and nothing was draining out of it, it was almost healed, she said it looked good and to keep cleaning it and it would go away, do a google search for Zuskas disease, it will tell you more about it, but a few days ago it came back, and 10 times worse then ever before, this time it was underneath my nipple, and it was swollen, and red and hurt so bad, so i called the next day to last doc. i saw, couldnt get in to see her till next week but the nurse told me to either go to E.R or family doc cuz it shouldnt be hurting that bad, so i went to family doc, who took measurements and pics, and sent to the doc. he sent me to the 1st time, who decided that the abcess need to be drained, so now I sit here with a tube in my breast leaking out all the infection, i go see the breast cancer doc. tues. hopefully she will take the tube out, but I will have to have surgery to remove the milk glands in my breast or it will come back again and again and again.I am 30 years old, ive never had children, do not have breast issues of any kind in my family. I do however smoke, and what ive been told about this disease, it is caused from smoking, the milk ducts excrete milk, but in a woman who smokes, the milk ducts are cut off due to circulation problems caused from smoking, so if I were to stop smoking my chances of not having to have surgery are very good, also it would probably never come back. So iam trying to quit smokin and hope fully all this will go away. there is my story its been ongoing for almost a year, Iam soo tired of it and glad i found a doc. who seemed to know what was going on I wish you the best of luck with all of this !!!!!!!